32. CARTER
CARTER
The trick is to look like I'm doing something.
I've been leaning against the bar for forty minutes with a glass I stopped drinking from twenty minutes ago, and if Adrian asks me one more time whether I think something is wrong I'm going to lose my shit.
Karim pulled me away to sort something at the private entrance. When I came back, Sienna wasn't where I'd left her. I started scanning. Five minutes. Ten. Then Adrian appeared from the direction of the terrace. Alone. The worry in my chest started to mutate into dread.
I tried her phone.
I heard it ring.
From the other side of the bar. The bartender handed me the purse. Said Sienna had left it behind when William took her.
William.
I called William. Got through. Heard Sienna's voice, shaky but there.
That calmed me down.
For a while.
A short sound escapes Adrian. Frustration with nowhere to go. He picks up his drink and puts it back down without drinking it. Under any other circumstances I might find it interesting. Adrian restless is not something you see often. Adrian clearly not managing something is rarer still.
Then I see her.
She comes through the crowd first, William is right behind her. And they are holding hands.
"Shit." I hear Adrian beside me.
I keep my eyes on Sienna.
She's scanning the room, moving her eyes left and right. Her hair is down. She's in her dress but something is different about her, and I watch her face for the things I need to know.
She's nervous, I can see that in the way she holds her shoulders slightly higher than usual, the way her eyes don’t settle on anything specific.
They make it through the crowd to where we're standing and Adrian doesn't wait. He goes straight to her, takes her face in both hands and kisses her.
William's hand is still holding hers.
"You okay?" Adrian asks her.
She nods. Her hands come up to his wrists.
"Missed you," he says.
I glance at William.
The look on William’s face is priceless. He is always so stoic, so in control that it is kind of amusing to see him pulling at his tie uncomfortably.
I take a champagne flute from the bar, hold it out toward her, and when she turns to me I say, "I like your hair down like this."
The color that rises in her face answers all my questions.
I'm jealous. If I’m being truly honest. But only because I want all of Sienna’s minutes.
She told me about William’s kiss before. When it would have been easier not to.
And I know my friend. I recognize now all the intensity that he had towards Sienna was not only because he was seeking revenge.
I can see the difference between a man running a plan and a man who's lost the thread of one.
I give a kiss to the top of Sienna’s head trying to communicate that nothing is broken, that we will figure things out.
"Let's find somewhere quieter," I say. "That corner by the back bar. All of us."
I'm already moving. They follow.
The four of us make a small circle. The silence that follows us is thick enough to be its own fifth presence.
Sienna looks around the circle. She takes a breath.
"I'm not trying to lead any of you on." I can see her struggling to find the right words. "The truth is that I—" She pauses again and when she looks at me her eyes hold something careful and a little braced. "I like all of you. And things just sort of got out of control and I didn't—"
"Sienna." I calm her down. "You don't owe us any explanations."
I turn to William.
He looks at me first. Then Adrian. His jaw is set but not the way it gets before a fight. Something more contained than that. "Sienna explained things to me." A pause. "I think I understand the basics of it."
"Do you?" Adrian asks, narrowing his eyes at William. He was also a witness to the way William talked about Sienna.
William turns toward Adrian. I see the shift, the half-degree squaring of his shoulders. Sienna's hand comes up flat against William's chest and I watch him go still under it.
"You don't have to worry about me." William says to Adrian with a steady voice.
Adrian holds the look for a long moment. Then he nods once.
I look at Sienna. She's standing between all three of us and she looks slightly overwhelmed.
"Have you eaten?" I ask.
"I'm not really hungry."
I reach up and touch her cheek with the backs of my fingers. A brief touch. "You need to eat." I look at Adrian and I don't have to do more than that. He understands what I’m saying and he's already moving before I finish the sentence.
"Come on, sweetheart." he says to her, putting his arm out for her to take.
She glances between me and William. Then she takes Adrian's arm and they move into the crowd together.
Then it's just me and William. Good, because we need to have a serious conversation.
"Carter, don’t even start. I know what you are going to say" William gets ahead of the conversation.
"Yeah, and what is it?"
"There is no hidden agenda. No evil plan. I genuinely—” He stops. Starts differently. "I can't explain it. There's this pull towards her—"
I look at him. I understand what he is saying. I feel it too.
“The last time we were here together you were planning ways to get your revenge on her.” I take a moment to force calm into my voice “You are my best friend. I owe you my life”
He makes a sound of dismissal and I cut through it. "We both have gone to hell and come out stronger. We built something together. You are my brother. But I will not let you hurt her. She doesn’t deserve it."
He doesn't blink. He doesn't look away. "I will never hurt her."
I hold his gaze. I can see that he is being sincere.
I nod once and say, "Let's go get our girl."